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Prescription Drug Addiction

The increase in recreational prescription drug use has resulted in more emergency room visits and fatal overdoses. These drugs are popular with teens who can often easily obtain them in their parents’ or grandparents’ medicine cabinets.

Recent data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows drug use among seniors is on the rise. While fewer teens are using, the number of older Americans getting high has been going up for the last decade. Most of the changes come from use of marijuana, but prescription medications being used inappropriately is also a problem.

Modafinil was given the green light by the FDA back in 1998 to treat symptoms of narcolepsy and certain sleep disorders. Over the years, the drug’s use has expanded to include treatment of fatigue, depression and Parkinson’s disease, although these are not usages recommended by the manufacturers. Meanwhile, anyone from truck drivers to soldiers to students looking for a way to stay alert has probably heard of modafinil. Now reports are surfacing that the drug may not be as risk-free as once believed and its use for other-than-recommended symptom management may not be entirely safe. Continue Reading

In a world where we judge it unfair to use performance enhancing drugs in the world of athletics should it be okay to use performance enhancing substances in academia? That is the question being faced by ethicists and medical experts today. If a pill could help students to study, remember and think clearly, would it be fair to use it? Continue Reading

As authorities crack down in the war against prescription drugs, an unforeseen consequence has begun to emerge. Because it has become more difficult to obtain OxyContin and other prescription narcotics, addicts are simply going back to something tried and true – substituting illicit drugs instead.

Across the globe, pharmaceutical companies, physicians and patients are making it a high priority to address the epidemic levels of people addicted to prescription painkillers, such as OxyContin, which features the key ingredient oxycodone. Continue Reading

Veterans of the wars in the Mideast who have posttraumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) are more likely to receive prescriptions for painkillers even though they are at high risk for addiction, according to a new study from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Continue Reading

Veterans returning home from war often display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including pain on both the physical and emotional levels. Doctors want to bring help, and many prescribe opiate-based prescription painkillers. Continue Reading

In the past five years, many emergency rooms have seen a lot of misuse of the muscle relaxant carisoprodol and the number of hospital visits has doubled according to a recent report from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). Carisoprodol can be an effective medication when used for treatment of short term, acute muscle pain that includes pain management for severe injury. Continue Reading

The misuse of prescription painkillers is becoming a serious problem, resulting in emergencies that lead to a hospital visit. Many adolescents abuse narcotic painkillers, often taking them from the medicine cabinets of loved ones or obtaining them from friends. Continue Reading